I get the feeling that this blog is going to be busy over the next few weeks. The budget this week has been picked to pieces by pundits – and I’m not going to add that list, here’s RSPB Conservation Director, Martin Harper, giving his...
We’ve been shoulder to shoulder with the Friends of North Kent Marshes for over a decade campaigning to save this historic landscape and world class wildlife site from proposals to build a major new four runway airport. But to the people of the Hoo Peninsula...
The Arctic blast that has given the last days of winter such a chill will eventually relent. Spring is really just around the corner and when, eventually, the countryside is clothed in green our thoughts will turn to the flood of summer migrants. One...
The Space for Nature; Land for Life Conference on 28th February was a key milestone for the Greater Thames. Over a hundred individuals, representing interests from across business, communities, local government, conservation and funders, came together...
I believe that the Greater Thames should be an amazing place to live, work and visit.
The Greater Thames Futurescape represents the RSPB’s contribution to putting together the pieces of the landscape.
Our vision includes the phrases “economic...
Planners often get a bad press, but the current BBC2 series The Planners paints them in a sympathetic light. As a former local government planner myself, I know what it’s like to deal with objecting neighbours, applicants who won’t negotiate, and council...
From Romania to Romford and from Portugal to Perth, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive is a crucial tool in the protection of Europe’s environment. Since I last blogged on the proposals to review the directive in December (see
I admit that working for nature in the Greater Thames isn’t all about glitz and glamour. Not in comparison to the 2013 Brit Awards which will no doubt dazzle and shimmer in North Greenwich tonight.
Take a conversation I had the other day about...
In the routine stream of work emails that contain no doubt import stuff (I will get round to reading them, honest) - one caught my eye. It was from our Mark Day who often sends emails at the more interesting end of the scale. Mark works upstairs in International...
Here’s some great news from Kenya’s Tana River Delta – and a new chapter in a story we’ve following on this blog for three years - here's the beginning of the story.
In a historic landmark ruling, the Kenyan judiciary have...
The Thames is a big old place! Although most of us wouldn’t necessarily associate it as being big on agriculture, this vital industry does have a place in as a historical food supplier for the UK’s burgeoning capital city. Together with partners, the...
I’ve not been counting, as I’ve just realised this is the 501st post on Saving Special Places. That’s quite a lot over the last three years and a bit.
This blog’s main theme is the protection of our finest wildlife sites – but I hope...
Dr Tim Stowe is the RSPB’s Director of International Operation and he has been closely following the campaign to protect red-breasted geese at their internationally important wintering site on the Black Sea coast. The RSPB is the UK’s BirdLife International...
Tides and the weather conspired to devastate lives and shape attitudes to the coast for generations. This is the legacy of the floods of 1953, still vivid on the eve of there 60th anniversary.
As the anniversary approaches there are so many stories of...
Well, that’s Big Garden Birdwatch done for another year. And for us it was one year when most the expected cast turned up, with few bonus additions.
Big Garden Birdwatch is the foothills of citizen science, but I’ve come to realise that they a...
Kick starting 2013 with a blog about why the Greater Thames matters to him, is Tim Webb, RSPB London’s Communications Manager:
Weekdays, my commute to and from work runs alongside the Thames and every time I’m alongside the river, the pedals turn...
The Danube Delta is, without doubt, part of Europe’s world-famous natural heritage, and this blog has covered stories from the Danube from time to time. Not least because we, here at the RSPB, have been supporting our colleagues and partners in the Romanian...
As we brace ourselves for some serious winter snow, winter tries to seduce us with some icy loveliness dressing the landscape at the RSPB’s The Lodge nature reserve.
It’s a vital time to stock up bird feeders and supply water to get your garden...
I spent the evening, yesterday, with the RSPB Medway Local group. While my journey was one I’d like to forget I got a warm reception, biscuits and a very nice calendar.
This corner of Kent is certainly in the eye of something of a nature conservation...
This blog is largely about the places over the garden fence, but once a year I’m delighted to focus on that patch that is so important to so many of us – our gardens.
The garden is a great nature-connector, a window on the world of wildlife...
Forget New Year’s resolutions, it's time – right now – to get outside and find some winter wildlife.
You’ll have your favourite places to go, but please accept my invitation to visit an RSPB reserve today! Or as soon as you...
All best wishes to you, the regular readers of Saving Special Places. The blog is now into its forth year and I look forward to bringing you a wider range of stories in 2013.
RSPB The Lodge Nature Reserve - the Swiss Cottage gate house with added...
A landscape surrounds a valley in which a wetland reflects the sky in which a reedbed sighs in the wind in which a bittern pumps itself up to boom out its mating call – a Russian doll of nature, each part supporting the next.
The bittern will very...
Readers of this blog may recall that last year I was part of a small group of planning practitioners that drafted a version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The Government’s draft version of the NPPF proved extremely controversial, although...
What is that makes a place special?
I’m sure you’ll have a variety of views on that! The landscape, personal memories of happy times, a link with your childhood – as a reader of this blog there’s a fair bet your answer might include the wildlife that...